Students now have new job opportunities after two OU professors created an innovative company located here in Oklahoma.

After years of intensive projects and arduous fundamental research at Tinker Air Force Base, OU Industrial Engineering Professors Shiva Raman and Binil Starly unveiled SEAM Aero last year. The company employs a new, ground-breaking technology that uses a laser scanning arm to create three-dimensional computer designs of obsolete aircraft parts that are still very much needed to keep U.S. aircrafts in flight. SEAM Aero stands for Shape Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing.

“We are introducing new technology to a new market,” Raman said.

Even in the wake of the current economic recession, SEAM Aero has the capability of developing an efficient and economical method of recreating missing aircraft parts while also producing jobs and generating money in Oklahoma.

“My number one goal with SEAM Aero is to create jobs in Oklahoma,” Raman said.

About 30 people total have already been employed by SEAM Aero. Approximately a dozen OU students and seven OU faculty members are employed at the Norman Economic Development Coalition’s Emerging Technology Entrepreneurial center (eTec) located near campus corner.

Working alongside two outstanding OU professors isn’t SEAM Aero’s only appealing factor, according to Rob Boyles, industrial engineering senior.

“It seems like a great opportunity for a brand new graduate, especially since the company is just starting up and it has had so much initial success,” Boyles said.

There is also a great need for people with backgrounds in publicity, finance, social sciences, policy, education, marketing and supply chain Raman said.

“There are still so many systemic issues,” Raman said. “OU students are the heart of the company.”

SEAM Aero not only provides mere employment, but it also provides students with the opportunity to work with cutting edge technology, their own OU professors and faculty, an inventive company, and also serves as an inspirational example of a business that successfully jumped the hurtle of the economic recession.

“As I understand it, since many military aircraft are having their originally planned operational lives extended, more and more aged parts require replacement, which makes their company extremely valuable,” Boyles said.

SEAM Aero will create jobs by acting as the middle man between manufacturers and large companies.

The company will supply the technical data package, or the three-dimensional model, to manufacturing companies who will spread the wealth in Oklahoma, Raman said.

“We will fill the technological gaps and empower the small guy by providing the bite to their bark,” Raman said.

Companies these days create electronics that are designed to become obsolete within a few years, and while that is great for money making it’s a nightmare for our planet as all of that waste just builds, said Jessica Radcliffe, interdisciplinary perspectives on the environment senior.

“With this technology maybe we could prevent some of that stuff from building up as we could create less new stuff and just fix the old,” Radcliffe said.

 

SEAM AERO'S MISSION STATEMENT:
SEAM Aero applies digitally enabled next-generation technologies for the aerospace industry for delivery of

high quality solutions through:
» Reverse engineering
» Metrology
» CAD/CAM
» Tooling design
» Manufacturing process planning
» Rapid prototyping
*Source: www.seamaero.com